At Prison Professors, we send workbooks into jails and prisons across America. Many people who work through those courses write back with questions. Some send questions through the mail. Some send them through email if they have access. Sometimes family members or staff members forward questions to our team.
One question came to me recently:
Are people in prison truly empowered by self-directed learning?
I want to begin by saying that I try not to use words like prisoner, inmate, or convict. Those words can make it easier for society to forget the person behind the label.
Every person in prison is still a human being. He may be a father, a son, a brother, a husband, or a friend. She may be a mother, a daughter, a sister, a wife, or a friend. The system can institutionalize people, and sometimes people begin to believe the label the system puts on them.
Self-directed learning helped me resist that process.
It helped me remember that I was responsible for the way I would think, the way I would grow, and the way I would prepare for the future.
Learning Changed the Way I Thought
I was arrested on August 11, 1987.
At the beginning of my journey, I made a series of bad decisions. I went to trial even though I knew I was guilty. A judge later sentenced me to serve 45 years in federal prison.
I could not change those facts.
I could not go back and undo the bad decisions that brought me into the criminal justice system. But I could make a decision about how I would respond.
During my first year, I was locked in solitary confinement. That environment could have broken me. Instead, it became the place where I began to change the way I thought.
I would like to say that I figured everything out on my own, but that would not be true. I learned from the Bible. I learned from Frederick Douglass. I learned from Socrates. I learned from business leaders. Those people helped me understand that if I wanted to transcend the environment, I had to take responsibility for my own growth.
That is what self-directed learning means to me.
It means we do not wait for the system to teach us. We begin teaching ourselves.
Becoming the CEO of My Life
In our course, CEO: Playbook — Become the CEO of Your Life, we teach a framework we call the Straight-A Guide.
That framework helped me through prison, and it still guides the way I live today.
The first step was defining success.
For me, success meant more than getting through the sentence. I wanted to emerge from prison differently than I entered. I wanted to come home with dignity. I wanted to earn the trust of people in society. I wanted to build income streams. I wanted to contribute.
Once I defined success, I could begin setting goals that aligned with that vision.
My plan had three parts:
Get an education.
Contribute to society.
Build a support network.
Those three goals influenced the books I read, the courses I studied, the way I wrote, the way I built relationships, and the way I prepared for life after prison.
Every day, I had to ask whether my decisions were moving me closer to the person I wanted to become.
That is the power of self-directed learning.
We Are Responsible for What We Learn
If someone asks me whether a person in prison can empower himself through self-directed learning, my answer is yes.
A thousand percent yes.
But that empowerment comes with responsibility.
A person has to decide what he is going to learn. He has to decide what he is going to read. He has to decide how much time he will invest in writing, studying, reflecting, and building skills.
The system may not make that easy.
There may not be enough teachers. There may not be enough classrooms. There may be lockdowns, transfers, noise, politics, or distractions. But a person who is committed to growth can still begin.
I know because I had to begin in solitary confinement.
Books became my teachers. Writing became my accountability system. Goals became my compass. Each lesson helped me prepare for the next chapter of my life.
Preparing for the Next Chapter
When I was in prison, I considered myself unemployable.
I knew that when I came home, many people would only see my conviction. They would see the sentence. They would see the decades I served. I had to prepare for that reality.
That meant I had to learn about business. I had to learn about communication. I had to learn how to create value. I had to learn how to build income streams instead of waiting for someone to give me a job.
The lessons I learned in prison helped me come home and build businesses. Over time, those businesses brought financial stability. That stability allowed me to focus my life on the work I want to do now.
I want to help more people in prison empower themselves.
I want to help them prepare for success.
I want to help them come home with their dignity intact, ready to live as law-abiding, contributing citizens.
That is a victory for the individual.
That is a victory for the family.
That is a victory for society.
Five Outcomes Await Every Person in Prison
I often say there are five outcomes waiting for people after prison.
Some people will be unemployed.
Some people will be underemployed.
Some people will be homeless.
Some people will have more problems with the law.
Some people will be successful.
Every day, decisions influence which outcome becomes more likely.
If we want success, we have to prepare for success. We cannot wait until the release date gets close. We cannot depend on someone else to do the work for us. We have to begin where we are, with what we have, and take the next right step.
Self-directed learning gives us a path.
It helps us build knowledge, confidence, discipline, and a record of growth.
Document the Journey
At Prison Professors, we provide free courses because we believe every person should have access to tools that can help them prepare.
But we also encourage people to memorialize what they are learning.
That means writing about the books they read. It means journaling about the decisions they make. It means building release plans. It means creating a record that shows growth, accountability, and preparation.
Through Prison Professors Talent, we want people to document their progress. Our goal is to help 10,000 people build profiles that show how they are working to prepare for success.
Why does that matter?
Because documented progress helps us make a stronger argument for reform. It helps us show stakeholders that people can change. It helps us build evidence that people who work to reconcile with society should have opportunities to earn higher levels of liberty through merit.
Start Today
No one can change the past.
I could not change the decisions that led to my arrest. I could not change the 45-year sentence. I could not change the fact that I began my journey in solitary confinement.
But I could change the way I responded.
I could decide to learn.
I could decide to write.
I could decide to build.
I could decide to prepare.
That is what self-directed learning gave me. It gave me a way to take responsibility for my future, even while living inside a prison.
And that same opportunity exists for others.
If you are going through the system, start today. Define success. Set clear goals. Read with purpose. Write with honesty. Build skills. Build a support network. Document every step.
Do not wait for the system to empower you.
Empower yourself.
Self-Directed Reflection Question
What decision can I make today that will show I am preparing for success in the weeks, months, years, and decades ahead?